Links: Random Notes

• First of all, thanks for the love on Wednesday’s post. Just as I posted it I realized it probably came off like me tooting my own horn, as though I was promoting my own morality or ethical greatness. That’s not what I was intending to do — I just thought that it was an interesting story, a side of things you don’t always hear people talk about. The fact that I am morally superior to all of the rest of you is kind of a free bonus. Kidding!

• I went into this football season totally uninterested. The Falcons, after all, were Vick-less, and my UGA Dawgs were allegedly in a rebuilding season. Even Georgia Tech, who I secretly root for when they’re not playing Georgia, were opening the season at mighty Notre Dame. Well, UGA whupped Oklahoma State last week and GT put it down on Notre Dame in South Bend. So they both appear to be better than expected. (Plus UGA plays South Carolina on ESPN2 tomorrow, so I’m already getting into gameday mode for that one.)

And then there’s the Falcons. Everyone wrote them off when Vick went off to the pokey, but I was secretly hoping that maybe they’d be better than expected. After all, Bobby Petrino is supposedly a great offensive coach, and maybe he could turn Joey Harrington into a passable NFL player. Then, yesterday, Bill Simmons deemed the Falcons this season’s surprise team, writing an impassioned argument that The Ewing Theory would work in their favor. As a Falcons fan, this was heartening to read, because at this point even just a little bit of positive thinking feels good. However, Simmons mentioned Detroit’s crappy receivers while Harrington was there — has he seen the Falcons receiving corps?

Either way, I’m fired up for week one. When Harrington led a touchdown drive during the preseason — just one touchdown drive, mind you — I was sending out the taunting text messages to Khalid. If we get drilled by the Vikings on Sunday, I’ll reconsider my exuberance. For now, however, I’m in.

• This is one of my favorite video clips of all-time, and now it lives on YouTube. They used to show this every year during the Letterman anniversary specials on NBC, and it made me laugh every time. Still does…

That’s one mean monkey.

• This week, Apple announced their new line of iPods, including the iPod Touch, which is basically an iPhone without the phone; they also dropped a new “classic” iPod and an iPod Nano. (You can see them all here.) I use my iPod more than any other piece of technology that I own, with the exception of my HDTV. A few months ago, after using my iPod for at least an hour a day, every day for about a year, it started skipping and acting funny. I’d be walking along, lost in a song, and then the thing would just pause. I’d dig it out of my pocket, unlock it, hit play, lock it, put it back in my pocket, walk about three blocks…and then it would pause again. To say it was maddening is an understatement.

I finally discovered that a good way to fix it was by pulling it out and just punching the back of it as hard as I could a few times. This actually worked. For about a month. Then it went back to its old tricks.

So, after a month of using an old iPod Nano, I finally went and bought a new iPod a couple of weeks ago. This one has 80 gigs of memory, which easily holds my entire library.

Of course, I was a little angry when they announced the new iPods, only because I just bought one. At the same time, I know that’s how the technology game works — you buy at your own risk, flush with the knowledge that at any time something new and better may be released. But after looking at the specs, I’m not that upset. The biggest iPod Touch comes with a measly 16 gigs of memory. Yes it has internet access, but so does my Sidekick. I’ll upgrade to the Touch eventually, but for now I’m good.

• I’ve been listening to the forthcoming Kanye album a lot the last few days, and I like it. It’s not a great album, but it’s good, definitely worth owning. The problem is, Kanye doesn’t really have much to say. The album is called The Good Life, and pretty much every song is about how good Kanye’s life is. Fun!

What Kanye definitely is, however, is two things: A great producer and a really clever writer. The beats all instantly feel familiar, probably because most of them sample old songs that you’ll probably at least partially recognize. Lyrically, Kanye’s album is pretty much a really long blog post. Since he doesn’t have anything to say, he just drops about a million references to people in pop culture, from Kate Moss to Lawry’s seasoning salt to Rosie Perez to Blackstreet to Will Smith to Lauryn Hill to Barry Bonds.

Anyway, that’s all I got. Have a great weekend everyone. Catch you guys next week…